A
visitor to Malton Station today could be forgiven for thinking
it was no more than a glorified halt on the York to Scarborough
line, but for most of its existence Malton Station was a very
busy place employing well over a hundred staff at its peak at
the beginning of the 20th Century.

Long
before the coming of the railway Malton had established itself
as an important trading centre thanks to the navigable river Derwent,
and by the time the railway opened on 7th July 1845
the north bank of the river was largely occupied by various breweries,
mills and factories.Due
to the north bank being already developed the railway had to be
built on the south bank, in Norton.This caused numerous difficulties over the years, as the
railway was unable to directly serve the businesses of Malton,
the exception being the line to the biscuit factory in Railway
Street, now flats, and formerly occupied by Brandsbys Agricultural
Trading Association.These
lines crossed the river on the recently refurbished bridge in
Railway Street and until the late 1950ís the tracks were still
insitu beneath the tarmac.Another bridge had been planned to cross the river, the
intention being to serve the town gasworks, but this eventually
came to nothing.Instead
permanent employment was given, for over a hundred years, to Carters
who transferred the coal from the station to the gasworks some
half a mile away.

Between
the opening in 1845 to the opening of the lines to Driffield and
Gilling in May 1853 Malton Station had a relatively sedate beginning
with only three trains each way between York and Scarborough.Even trains to Whitby started from the Junction Station
at Rillington but when Malton became a junction with the opening
of the aforesaid branches it soon became obvious that the original
station had outlived its usefulness and in 1862 the station was
remodeled with the York bound platform being repositioned outside
the station roof.

Large
amounts of freight were now being handled at Malton leading to
an increase in the amount of engines required to haul these trains
and the 1854 engine shed was extended in 1867 along with the laying
of extra sidings to cope with the growing traffic.Further alteration became necessary in 1883 with the addition
of a bay platform at the east end of the station to accommodate
trains from Gilling, Driffield and Whitby as by now Rillington
had ceased to be the connecting station.

Signaling
and point operation up to the 1870ís had been rather a hit and
miss affair, with accidents being commonplace,
of which Malton had its fair share.One accident in particular occurred at the level crossing on
Scarborough Road where a pointsman operated a set of points beneath
a train causing it to derail and overturn.This level crossing was abolished shortly after and replaced
by a brick bridge that still stands today, although the railway
beneath is long gone.

Malton
eventually came under the control of four signal boxes by the
end of the 1870ís, the first being Malton West built about half
a mile on the York side of the station and controlling the entrance
and exits to the goods yards.Malton Station signal box was immediately opposite what
is now the entrance to the station, via the booking office, and
controlled trains in and out of all the platforms, including the
unique trolley bridge connecting the two through platforms.The next signal box was Malton East that controlled the
busy level crossing and junction towards Driffield.This box is the only survivor and is still in use today.The fourth signal box was at the aforementioned Scarborough
Road and was the second box at the site, the first being a low
structure.A tall signal box replaced this as the bridge that replaced
the level crossing obscured the signalmanís view from the original
low box.This box
controlled the junction with the lines from Malton East to Gilling
and the north, and Driffield to the south, followed some years
later by sidings into the Yorkshire Farmers Bacon Factory at the
end of Parliament Street.

From
1890 to the 1920ís Malton Station prospered and became one of
the most important stations on the North Eastern Railway.Itís hard to imagine today all the activities taking place
at that time.Engine whistles sounding, wagons shunting, and the clanking
of couplings being the norm until midnight on most days.

The
beginning of the 1930ís saw road transport expanding and the railways
golden age was over.Maltonís
first service to suffer was the passenger train to Gilling withdrawn
largely due to the intermediate stations being some distance from
the villages it served and the bus service being handier and cheaper.The following year saw the demise of the intermediate stations
between York and Scarborough, with the exception of Malton and
Seamer, these stations remaining open for parcels and goods traffic
for a further thirty years.Freight, however, remained profitable thanks to the opening
of large stone quarries at Wharram and Burdale on the Driffield
line.Malton engines
crews worked these stone trains as far as Thirsk yard for forwarding
to Messrs Dorman Long & Co steelworks at Middlesbrough,

Nationalisation
came on 1st January 1948 followed on the 5th
June 1950 by the withdrawal of the passenger service to Driffield.
This was hardly surprising as the passenger receipts were barely
covering the cost of the engine coal let alone all the other operating
costs.On 18th
October 1958 the last freight train on the Driffield line ran
to Fimber and Sledmere and back ending the one hundred and five
year rail service over and through the Wolds.Four years later and the publication of the Beeching Report
finished off the line to Gilling and beyond on 10th
August 1964, followed by the Whitby service on 6th
March 1965.Malton
engine shed had closed in April 1963 and by the end of 1965 parts
of the station and sidings were surplus to requirements.Scarborough Road signal box had closed with the demise
of the Gilling branch in October 1964, the line being kept open
to Amotherby for a few weeks longer due to a contract with B.A.T.A.

In
May 1966 the signal boxes at Malton West and Malton Station were
closed and a new electric control panel was installed at Malton
East to control what was left of the layout, this box being renamed
just Malton.At the
same time the tracks in the bay platform were removed along with
the all the sidings in the top yard, this is now Kwik- Saveís
car park. The York bound platform was also abolished, all trains
now using the one remaining platform under the roof that to this
day causes delays when a train running late means two trains arriving
together.

The
re-signaling was completed in May 1968 when the infamous level
crossing gates were replaced by flashing lights and lifting barriers.However, even at this stage Malton remained fully staffed
with senior and junior booking clerks, porters, shunters and the
a Station Master.The York to Scarborough pick up goods continued to run twice
daily until the 1970ís as did the Knapton goods to serve the Associated
British Maltsters sidings.By the early 1980ís only the morning York to Scarborough
pick up goods was still running eventually becoming Mondays, Wednesdays
and Fridays only and finishing completely in 1983.

At
about this time the last Station Master, or manager as he had
become, had departed for pastures new and it was decided not to
fill the post and the station was put under the jurisdiction of
Scarborough.More
redundancies followed, the demise of the goods train ending the
duties of the shunters and porters and the remaining sidings on
the north side being removed and the land sold for housing.Only two sidings remain at Malton and these can only be
used for storing engineersí trains due to the fact that they cannot
be accessed from any public road.The overall roof was demolished in the mid 1990ís and replaced
by the awning recovered from Whitby bay platform.The edge of this platform can still be seen behind the
fence at the edge of Kwik- Saves car park.

As
the years pass and memories fade only a few surviving photographs
and clips of film are left to remind us of what was once such
an important part of Maltonís history